September will be ‘Climate Change Awareness Month’

When last we checked in with teacher and environmental activist Mobi Warren, she was trying to convince a city of San Antonio committee to recommend to Mayor Julian Castro to name September Climate Change Awareness Month.

She succeeded. On Wednesday, the mayor will do just that.

Warren is a fifth-grade science and math instructor at Austin Academy, a fine-arts charter school in the San Antonio Independent School District. Working with a national organization, 350.org, Warren was planning an event, “Moving Planet: A day to move beyond fossil fuels.” Her idea was to package that with other awareness raising events in proximity to her event to pitch a full month of awareness.

Among the events will be the city’s own — A ciclovía, blocking a street to vehicular traffic to promote alternative forms of transportation. This will occur on Oct. 2 in downtown San Antonio.

Yes, it might seem counter-intuitive for a city in a state and region dependent on the oil and gas industry to take this step, but not really. No one much believes that these resources are infinite or that, even with technological improvements, that fossil fuels don’t contribute to man-made global warming. Well, OK, there are deniers to this last point. If you run into these folks, just smile and nod politely.

There is more to this than feel-good, environmentalist PR. It’s about saving the planet. The point with this month of awareness is to make the issue top of mind all the time. And that’s a worthy goal.